Brooks Koepka is the current World No. 1 and coming off an incredible season in which he won two major championships. Yet, the 28-year-old has maintained a belief he still doesn’t get the respect he deserves from the media. And to be fair, considering ESPN didn’t put Koepka on a top-20 list of dominant athletes in 2018 that includes a horse, he has a point.
RELATED: How does Brooks Koepka’s odd ratio of majors to tour titles stack up?
But Brooks has to be (more) pleased with golf writers after Thursday’s announcement that he won the Golf Writers Association of America Player of the Year Award. And although the GWAA doesn’t release full voting results (much like the PGA Tour with its POY that Koepka already won), the organization noted, “Koepka won easily,” which is impressive when you factor in Francesco Molinari’s Open Championship title and historic performance at the Ryder Cup. In the end, though, winning two of the game’s four biggest individual prizes — as it should be — was enough for Koepka to claim another piece of hardware.
“It’s incredible any time you can win player of the year. That’s pretty cool. Whether it’s by your peers or the writers, anybody that takes notice of what you’re doing I think it’s pretty special,” Koepka said.
“Obviously last year was pretty special and it was pretty unique and incredible for me. I hope to follow it up this year and try to build on that.”
He just won’t be able to use this vote as another slight to fuel his competitive fire. Although, he could always track down those writers who didn’t vote for him. . .
There weren’t any surprises in the GWAA’s Female Player or Senior Player of the Year categories either as Ariya Jutanugarn and Bernhard Langer won, respectively. This marked the second time Jutanugarn, 23, has won the award, while the 61-year-old — and seemingly everlasting — Langer made it a three-peat, giving him five such honors for his career.
Be the first to comment